I know there is some sick interest for German in this game tanks but I've seen a lot of post lately of new players moaning about how to play German tanks. Let me give you this piece of advise, don't play German tanks when you are new to the game. They are intended for advanced gameplay, not beginner gameplay.

Russian and US tanks are beginner friendly all-purpose tanks, perfect to hone your skills in. In the beginning, the new player need to have forgiving tanks that allow for all types of play so that the player understands the different roles and scenarios in the game, learns where to go on the different maps, learns how to and where to aim on enemy tanks.

German tanks expect the players to know all that already, as they need a player who can angle a tank, who know knows how and where to play with a delicate tank, how to aim for weak spots on different tanks. German tanks are generally slowish, poorly armored with a lot of flat surfaces, and prone to engine damage. They require players who knows exactly where to be, how to position the tank to increase the effective armor and protect the delicate breakable parts. New players don't have a clue about these things.

So, new player, do yourself a favor and leave the German tanks for at least 3000 to 5000 games. I promise you they will be more interesting and fun to play then.

See, I actually went for German tanks for precisely this reason. I went up the US lines, sure, but I refused to invest heavily into the Russian tanks because I didn't want to play the game in what I saw as easy mode. My WR has suffered from that choice, but the only two German vehicles that I can remember truly despising playing were the marder II (post-multi nerf) and the stock Tiger I.

No, for me, the advice to new players is don't pick the British Heavy line as your introduction to heavy tanks. THAT grind is unbelieveably painful if you don't know what you're doing. If you as a new player want to go up to tier IV and get the Matilda, that's one thing; it is a really fun tank to (slowly) drive around and cut the enemy to shreds with. But DO. NOT. Decide that you are going to pick the Churchill line as your first heavy tank line. I did and I was miserable. I managed to unlock the Black Prince and started looking up about it and decided that I had had enough of the slow, underpowered engines and guns on the British heavy line. I may go back at some point and grind through to unluck the Conqueror or the super Conqueror, but probably not for a LOOOOOOOOOONG time (a fitting amount of time for the British heavies, I think).

I know there is some sick interest for German in this game tanks but I've seen a lot of post lately of new players moaning about how to play German tanks. Let me give you this piece of advise, don't play German tanks when you are new to the game. They are intended for advanced gameplay, not beginner gameplay.

Russian and US tanks are beginner friendly all-purpose tanks, perfect to hone your skills in. In the beginning, the new player need to have forgiving tanks that allow for all types of play so that the player understands the different roles and scenarios in the game, learns where to go on the different maps, learns how to and where to aim on enemy tanks.

German tanks expect the players to know all that already, as they need a player who can angle a tank, who know knows how and where to play with a delicate tank, how to aim for weak spots on different tanks. German tanks are generally slowish, poorly armored with a lot of flat surfaces, and prone to engine damage. They require players who knows exactly where to be, how to position the tank to increase the effective armor and protect the delicate breakable parts. New players don't have a clue about these things.

So, new player, do yourself a favor and leave the German tanks for at least 3000 to 5000 games. I promise you they will be more interesting and fun to play then.

Still, the way a German tank demands you to be at least decent at the game is not at all beginner friendly. If a beginner gets frustrated from losing over and over again it's more likely he will just leave the game altogether. So I believe it's pretty good advice to start with beginner friendly lines, like the (biased) russian lines, IS7 imho is the way to go for a new player. If you like mediums the 140 line is also good for beginners.

I have to agree with OP, new players should roll up the American and Russian lines first to get a feel for the game. All tank lines have their quirks but these two are the most user friendly in my opinion. Well said OP, good post and I hope new players see this. I have learned to love the German lines, but they where my first grinds and I got my (Edit) handed to me...…..Now that I've played enough I really appreciate the different play styles of the different Countries and I just match my tank to my mood on any particular day and go play and have fun.

There are so many iconic German tanks that people are familiar with, especially from games like the Panzer General series or Steel Panthers. I fell into that same trap. My WR on the early German tanks was abysmal. Now that I understand positioning, the mobility and/or gun accuracy makes several of the worst noob-unfriendly tanks very strong. Even the DW2 has become a favorite for doing low tier missions and I HATED that tank the first time through.

I got into PC gaming when they introduced Blitz there which was also fairly soon after Fury came out on DVD. I am a casual but huge war movie fan and just loved the Tiger scene from Fury - "She's a beast!" Because of that young love, I went down the E100 line in Blitz (I am better than average here in WoT, but I am unicum in Blitz). I had fun with the Tigers there but later realized that those tanks weren't as competitive as I needed them to be. I own the 131 and HT#6 here, and if you don't know how to get that star angle just right when facing the enemy, you become a pinata. The line is certainly enjoyable and can be very good, but I must agree that they are not tanks for beginners. However, I do enjoy watching all the beginners take them for a spin when they're on the Red team ;-)

I blissfully picked Germans, Americans, Russians, and Swedes to start out on. I do only have heavies in the American and Russian lines currently, though I'm working on getting my first German heavy.

Not that my WR isn't still circling the bowl, but I think the German low tier mediums are not unusual compared to other lines. I can get smashed quickly in any brand. Maybe the fact that I am crawling up the tiers, not sprinting, is helpful. My one game in a DW2 scared me off, so I sold it right back. Soon I'll trade in my IVH for a 36.01H, and hopefully it won't be such a shock.

Great post, OP. Wish you had written it and I had seen it 3 years ago. After about a year I kind of gave up the game for a while (as you predicted) because I would play German tanks almost exclusively and always felt like I was never going to get better. That's not to blame my lack of progress entirely on the wrong tank choice, of course. I'm back at it with new resolve but still a slow learner even now. But reading your post makes me feel a little less retarded than I used to!

I will be honest I was thinking of doing Td's next and I was planning on doing German because I read up and learned they have the best accuracy/camo rating for TD's. Maybe I won't do TD's next then and maybe go do heavies or lights next?

I will be honest I was thinking of doing Td's next and I was planning on doing German because I read up and learned they have the best accuracy/camo rating for TD's. Maybe I won't do TD's next then and maybe go do heavies or lights next?

​If I had it to do over again I would not jump into the TD line early on. What I have found is that once I started to play something with a normal turret I was completely lacking in map knowledge, positioning my tank, or anything resembling a competent use of tactics. Spending my first 1,300-1,400 battles sitting in a bush next to a rock sniping at targets of opportunity has left me behind the curve.

I would suggest you go to lights and heavies next. Leave the TD's for later once you understand the flow of the game on each map. You'll do better with TD's at that point because you'll know better where to set up and maximize your affect on the enemy team.

If I had it to do over again I would not jump into the TD line early on. What I have found is that once I started to play something with a normal turret I was completely lacking in map knowledge, positioning my tank, or anything resembling a competent use of tactics. Spending my first 1,300-1,400 battles sitting in a bush next to a rock sniping at targets of opportunity has left me behind the curve.

I would suggest you go to lights and heavies next. Leave the TD's for later once you understand the flow of the game on each map. You'll do better with TD's at that point because you'll know better where to set up and maximize your affect on the enemy team.

You basically just said exactly what I was thinking of doing. Just cant decide between scout or heavy..... thinking heavy first, been wanting to learn angles and I hear heavies are good to learn that on,

Now I just have to research and decide between Russian or British heavies?

I don't know. The reverse could be said about the line. I started German line and with how unique the tanks play I feel it helped teach me the game because if you do it wrong you'll be punished pretty quickly. After I got the hang of it jumping into other nations almost felt like cheat mode.

You basically just said exactly what I was thinking of doing. Just cant decide between scout or heavy..... thinking heavy first, been wanting to learn angles and I hear heavies are good to learn that on,

Now I just have to research and decide between Russian or British heavies?

If you are going to put some effort into research beyond just reading the published stats for each tank, vbaddict provides good numbers that show how each tank has done in the game. It's not perfect, but then neither are the published stats or WN8 or PR or the game for that matter. Vbaddict can tell you what t5 heavy racks up the most dmg for example. Or how TDs compare to MTs in t6, etc etc

If you are going to put some effort into research beyond just reading the published stats for each tank, vbaddict provides good numbers that show how each tank has done in the game. It's not perfect, but then neither are the published stats or WN8 or PR or the game for that matter. Vbaddict can tell you what t5 heavy racks up the most dmg for example. Or how TDs compare to MTs in t6, etc etc

Thanks for the info, I have been told about vbaddict, I tend to read that, wotlabs and wotwiki. I dont find these myself though, I was told specifically to read through each. Yesterday my buddy explained to me about expected values and wn8 and I read some stuff about it on the wotlabs site. Thos 3 sites and youtube seem to be a pretty good start for info gathering, I am sure there are more and better sites, these are just what has been suggested to me so far.

I know there is some sick interest for German in this game tanks but I've seen a lot of post lately of new players moaning about how to play German tanks. Let me give you this piece of advise, don't play German tanks when you are new to the game. They are intended for advanced gameplay, not beginner gameplay.

Russian and US tanks are beginner friendly all-purpose tanks, perfect to hone your skills in. In the beginning, the new player need to have forgiving tanks that allow for all types of play so that the player understands the different roles and scenarios in the game, learns where to go on the different maps, learns how to and where to aim on enemy tanks.

German tanks expect the players to know all that already, as they need a player who can angle a tank, who know knows how and where to play with a delicate tank, how to aim for weak spots on different tanks. German tanks are generally slowish, poorly armored with a lot of flat surfaces, and prone to engine damage. They require players who knows exactly where to be, how to position the tank to increase the effective armor and protect the delicate breakable parts. New players don't have a clue about these things.

So, new player, do yourself a favor and leave the German tanks for at least 3000 to 5000 games. I promise you they will be more interesting and fun to play then.

Let me correct you. weakspots and angling means jack when the enemy can press the 2 button and lower the difficult of the game.

Hell I see tier 10's who would probably fire gold a tier 1 in their game.